| Author | Thread |
|
|
07/08/2006 08:33:19 PM · #1 |
| What does it really mean? Will I have to do more work with the photo in Photoshop? My Nikon shoots in Raw(NEF). Can I open NEF photos in Adobe Photoshop CS? |
|
|
|
07/09/2006 02:26:13 AM · #2 |
The camera's sensor is a series of light collectors, each tuned to a specific wavelength (Red, Green or Blue). The amount of light collected in these light collectors is used to make the channels for each pixel. The process of converting the light collector values to channel values for each pixel is called interpolation and has several variables that can be altered. White balance, for instance, is a variance in the amount of each color used. Other aspects of the image can be adjusted at the time of conversion as well, such as sharpness, contrast and saturation. All of this is done in camera when shooting in jpeg or TIFF, with varying degrees of control thru menu options.
When shooting raw the sensor values from each light collector is stored unmodified, and the modifications (WB and so on) the camera would do if converting to jpeg are instead stored in the RAW file as metadata (data about data). So, when shooting RAW, the photographer has the added processing of converting from the sensor's light collector data to color channels. This is done in a RAW converter. Adobe PhotoShop CS has a converter built in (and updates can be downloaded) that can do this, but there are also third pary solutions.
The RAW converter allows the photographer to control on a per picture basis how the RAW data is interpolated into color channels. This means the photographer has to decide on the WB, contrast, sharpening and so on for each image. The RAW converter likely also has other features (such as highlight and shadow exposure compensation) to set it apart from the rest, and many allow batch conversions so each image doesn't have to be handled individually.
Once converted in a RAW converter the resulting file is handled the same way as a jpeg from the camera would be. The benefit is improved handling of detail as the conversion is made the way the photographer wants instead of being made the way the camera wants and then altered afterwards.
David
|
|
|
|
07/09/2006 09:31:51 AM · #3 |
| Thank you David. So Adobe will convert an NEF file? |
|
|
|
07/09/2006 09:36:33 AM · #4 |
Peruse Adobe's RAW support, there's a link to d/l as well.
|
|
|
|
07/09/2006 09:47:17 AM · #5 |
| There is a good article on RAW here if you want more info. |
|
|
|
07/09/2006 09:49:19 AM · #6 |
From a practical standpoint, you will be going through an "extra step" of converting the RAW file, using ACR (Adobe Camera RAW). Since you have CS, you'll need to determine whether ACR 2.4 (the last version compatible with CS) supports your camera. If not, you can convert all your RAW files to DNG (Adobe's "Digital Negative" format" and then ACR 2.4 will open them. Note that there are later versions of ACR (up to 3.4 now) but these will not work with CS, only CS2.
During RAW conversion, you can adjust contrast, saturation, white balance, exposure, (even recovering blown highlighs to a limited degree), correct CA and/or vignetting, sharpen, and a few other things. This means that the JPEG file you create as a result of the conversion typically requires much less modification than an in-camera JPEG. So RAW conversion really isn't creating work, just transferring steps to conversion rather than JPEG editing. |
|
Home -
Challenges -
Community -
League -
Photos -
Cameras -
Lenses -
Learn -
Help -
Terms of Use -
Privacy -
Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2025 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 09/06/2025 01:52:48 AM EDT.
